The Baltimore Ravens were able to come away with a must-need win in Week 8 over the Chicago Bears without the services of star quarterback Lamar Jackson. After the game, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh addressed both his star quarterback’s status and a lingering controversy around how the team reported on Jackson’s status leading into Sunday’s game.
On Friday, Ravens fans were briefly optimistic that Jackson may be able to suit up on Sunday after the team listed him as a full participant at practice.
However, reports would later emerge that Jackson was actually leading the scout team instead of the first team offense, which was quickly followed by the Ravens changing Jackson’s official designation to limited and ruling him out for Sunday’s game later in the day.
By the letter of the law of the NFL’s injury report policy, any player who practices with the scout team that would otherwise practice with the first team should be listed as a limited participant. As a result of that error on the part of Baltimore, the league is investigating the Ravens’ handling of Jackson’s practice participation.
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Addressing this controversy after Sunday’s game, Harbaugh made it clear that he is not in charge of injury designations, claiming that the Ravens made “an honest mistake.” Additionally, Harbaugh explained that he is “hopeful” that Jackson will be able to play in the team’s Week 9 Thursday Night Football game against the Miami Dolphins.
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Harbaugh’s explanation likely won’t stop the NFL from issuing disciplinary actions if they feel that the team was intentionally deceiving both the Bears and the general public. However, this comment does perhaps rule out any possibility of Harbaugh individually receiving any kind of disciplinary actions from the NFL if he truly is not involved in making injury designations.
Regardless of how the league’s investigation plays out, things are finally starting to look up for a Ravens team that came into the season as contenders in the AFC.
If Jackson is able to return for the team’s Week 9 game, Baltimore could very well find itself back in the mix in the AFC North in short order. Especially if the Green Bay Packers are able to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football, which would be the third AFC North team to lose in Week 8.
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